When the St. Paul Saints got Eddie Medina in the off-season they knew they were getting a top tier pitcher. He has proven that in his first two starts as he dominated the Gary SouthShore Railcats on Friday night over 7.0 innings. The Saints won their sixth straight 5-0 at CHS Field in front of 8,110 and improved to 6-1 on the season.

Medina ran into a couple of jams during the night, but was able to get out of them courtesy of his defense and some nifty double plays. In the first the Railcats led off with back-to-back singles from Alex Crosby and Andy Paz, but a fly out from Mitch Glasser and then a nice play by second baseman Josh Allen to turn a double play ended the inning.

In the fifth Reggie Wilson doubled with two outs, but Medina got Christoph Bono to fly out to end the inning.

In the sixth Medina once again gave up back-to-back singles to Cole Fabio and Crosby to put runners at first and second. Medina, however, would get Paz to ground into a 6-4-3 double play and then retired Mitch Glasser on a comebacker. Medina went 7.0 shutout innings allowing six hits and striking out four while throwing 87 pitches, 57 for strikes.

The Saints gave Medina all the run support he would need in the first when Max Murphy doubled with one out, moved to third on a groundout and scored on an RBI single from Jayce Boyd to make it 1-0 Saints.

In the fourth Boyd led off with a single and Noah Perio Jr. doubled him to third. Dante Bichette Jr. drove them both home with a single to make it 3-0.

In the fifth Murphy led off with a triple and scored on a single from Brady Shoemaker to make it 4-0. Murphy finished 2-4 with a double, triple and two runs scored.

The Saints finished their scoring in the sixth when Josh Allen singled to right-center with two outs. He stole second and scored on a single to right-center from Richard Prigatano making it 5-0.

Ken Frosch tossed a shutout inning of relief for the Saints and Tom Wilhelmsen finished the shutout with a scoreless ninth, but not without a little help from his defense. With two on and one out Boyd made a spectacular diving play on a grounder down the first base line and shoveled the ball to Wilhelmsen in time to get Garrett Copeland. Wilhelmsen ended the game by getting Wilfredo Gimenez to ground out.

It was the first shutout for the Saints this season and their first since June 30, 2017 when they blanked the Railcats 10-0.

The same two teams meet in game two of the three game series on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. The Saints send LHP Jeff Malm (0-0, 1.50) to the mound against Railcats LHP Jeff McKenzie (1-0, 1.50). It is Dog Day presented by Chuck & Don’s. The game can be seen on the Saints Cable Network, cable access channels in and around the Twin Cities, and heard on Alt 93.3 FM.